Oil & Gas
Life-long learning
- Details
- Category: Oil & Gas
- Written by Jacqueline Louie
From entry level to executive, Devon’s employees are heading back to class
Education is front and centre at Devon Canada, at every stage of a person’s career.
Devon—an independent natural gas and oil exploration and production company—supports education in a variety of ways. Devon partners with universities across Western Canada, and with a selection of universities in Eastern Canada, in a very active campus program focused on promoting and filling technical and administrative professional positions. To this end, the company attends university job fairs across Canada each year, and returns to these universities a few months after each job fair to host Devon-specific information sessions on campus, and reconnect with students before the company’s job postings go up.
Each year, Devon Canada hires co-op students who do an eight-month work term, as well as summer students, engineering interns and new graduates. “This year, we will have 21 new graduates and 45 students coming on board,” says Susanne Beaton, Devon Canada’s manager of talent management.
According to Beaton, a key factor in the success of the Devon campus program is the company’s keen interest in encouraging and guiding students to work on projects related to their area of study. This ensures their work experience is as relevant and practical as possible, and gives them a head start when they eventually apply for full-time employment. Students who work at Devon for longer periods—eight or 16 months—also receive further training specific to the oil and gas industry.
In addition to its campus program, Devon distributes $30,000 worth of scholarships each year to students at the universities it partners with. These are key students identified in the interviewing process, but whom the company was unable to hire.
Many Devon field locations have also initiated partnerships with trade schools, hiring and developing apprentices. “Many of our field locations have done an exceptional job of creating their own partnerships in their local districts,” Beaton says.
New graduates also receive strong support. Going forward, Devon is introducing a formal engineering rotation program to support new grads. The company has had engineering rotation programs in the past, but these have been informal and limited in scope. The new program will be a significant step forward in educating and developing new graduates, Beaton says, and is designed to help new grads integrate faster into the oil and gas industry, and gain a broad perspective of the business as a whole. The company hopes this will reduce turnover, and allow young workers to make better decisions as they plot their career path.
Other disciplines, such as geology, finance and land, have had a long-standing focus on developing new grads, with both formal and informal training elements.
The company also has an informal buddy system to help new grads integrate into Devon—generally a senior staff member who is partnered with a junior person coming into the organization.
Devon develops professional talent within its ranks through several different ways. For instance, all new hires participate in a one-day orientation where they learn about the company, its history, values, mission, core processes and much more—all the basics in order for them to be successful within the organization.
Employees working with Devon’s thermal operations receive further training in Devon’s oilsands operations. This training is also open to all company employees who would like to know more about Devon’s SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage) operations in the oilsands.
Devon has also made a significant commitment to the aboriginal communities close to its SAGD operations. The Hamlet of Conklin, Devon’s closest neighbour, has been a partner in a number of educational initiatives. One that Devon is most proud of is the new community high school for Conklin. Historically, students had to go to Fort McMurray to continue their education beyond Grade 9, as there was no high school available in Conklin. Devon worked with the local community and Sunchild E-Learning to make an infrastructure investment as well as funds for a teacher and programming. Now, local students can stay in their community to be educated.
In addition, Devon supports a number of energy literacy educational initiatives in elementary and junior high schools across the province, delivered by organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, Inside Education, GreenLearning and SEEDS (Society, Environment and Energy Development Studies). Experience with these programs has demonstrated that youth are incredibly responsive to action-oriented programs that empower them to make a difference, even before they start thinking about a career.
Attribute-based learning is a central focus at Devon, which sets out models of competency and behavioural expectations for all of the company’s employees. Connected with these models are a series of learning opportunities linked to employee performance goals and career development planning. With supervisor guidance, employees sign up for these internal learning opportunities, which consist of instructor-led sessions on a variety of topics, as well as a broad selection of e-learning opportunities that employees can do from their desktop. There is a clear focus on developing leaders in the company. Specific programs designed around the attributes are offered, on a nomination basis, to people in positions where others are formally reporting to them.
Recently, Devon launched a new executive academy, aimed at a select group of Devon employees who are either developing in their executive roles, or are candidates for future executive roles. “Action learning” forms a major part of this intensive program, which will see the group divided into small teams to work on real-time business issues and then present their recommendations to the senior executive committee. It’s an approach with real accountability built into it, from the classroom directly to the company.
